People often need assistance in maintaining, organizing, and retrieving vast amounts of personal information, such as appointments, birthdays, anniversaries, contacts, and to-do items that need to be completed. In response to this need, electronic information management tools, such as calendars, contacts lists, and to-do lists, have been developed to assist users in information management. These tools are designed to assist users such that less time may be spent organizing their information.
The large number and general availability of information management tools, however, has detracted from the benefit of such tools. In particular, users often have multiple devices and software applications for personal information management that use different ways of storing and organizing information. As a result, users' information often becomes distributed amongst the various devices and applications, preventing the users from having a unified source of information.
In some cases, users may try to maintain their information on a common device or using a common application or set of applications. However, it may be extremely time-consuming for users to get information in the correct location. Additionally, users often do not have access to their electronic information tools when they wish to add information items. Instead, they are forced to either try to remember to add the information later or may try to record the information in whatever form is currently available to them. For instance, users may send themselves emails, text messages, or leave themselves a voicemail. Sometimes, users may write themselves sticky notes with the information and hope the note is not lost before the information is added to their information management tool. Again, the result is that instead of having one location for storing and organizing their information, users have information located at numerous distinct and unconnected locations.